Myanmar ranked as top 3 on the Global list of terrorism death perpetrated by the opposition rebel forces on the U.S Department of State’s 2002 Report

Yangon, 4 December 2023

The Global Terrorism Trends and Analysis Center (GTTAC) of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Counterterrorism recently issued the report on global terrorist incidents in 2022. Myanmar is ranked as 3rd in the terrorism fatalities and 7th for the incidents but with the highest year on year increase in every terrorism aspects. If the Myanmar Junta Government’s claim of the death toll of 6700 civilians who are killed by the opposition rebel forces since 2021 is correct, Myanmar is likely to be ranked as top in the world for terrorism killings on the next release of U.S State Department’s report for the the 2023 period.

The report stated that there were 2,130 fatalities of terrorist killings in Myanmar (Burma) which constitute 10 percent of the global death toll and the main perpetrator is named as the Peoples Defense Forces (PDF) rebels. The PDF is formed by the Noble Peace Prize Laureate Suu Kyi’s National League For Democracy NLD party led parallel Government “The National Unity Government” NUG after the 2021 military coup. The coup followed the electoral dispute about November 2020 election that held during Covid-19 pandemic under the ruling Suu Kyi’s NLD civilian Government which the NLD claimed to win by land slide and the military accused them of fraud. The 5 year rule of Suu Kyi’s civilian Government from 2015-2020 is fraught with human rights violation of Rohingya genocide and rebellions such as 2016 northern alliance attack on Chinese border area (current fighting in the same area since 27 October 2023 by the same MNDA led groups) and Rakhine (Arakan) State uprisings by the AA rebels. The third perpetrator on 2022 is listed as the Kayah ethnic led KNDF which kidnapped 204 teachers and families from the State’s Loikaw University recently on November 2023 that might include on the next year’s report.

The NLD led NUG Government officially have stated its policy that anyone who is employed or continue working for the Junta Government is considered as the collaborator and would be punished. The students who continued their study in the state schools are also regarded as the legitimate targets in the country where almost all the education and health services are funded by the State. the attacks on schools and health facilities occur daily with opposition rebel forces proudly taken responsibilities on Social Medias. Myanmar was considered as the pariah state with severe international economic sanctions until 2012 and the largest employer, other than agriculture in this Asia’s poorest country, is the Government sector.

The NUG parallel Government is mainly based in neighboring Thailand and funded by various donations from expatriate Myanmar communities in Asia and the western countries including Untied States while the United Nations accept the Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun who represents NUG as the official representative of Myanmar.

The death squads, proudly sponsored by the NLD led NUG Government on Social Medias are prowling in the streets of towns and villages and control the population with terror. The use of child soldier is also rampant and all armed forces in the conflict actively recruit child soldiers which is considered as the act of War Crime under the International Laws. The NLD Government under the Suu Kyi was investigated by the International Court of Justice for genocide of Rohingya in 2019 and its off-shot, the NUG parallel Government, is also seemed to be implicated with commitment of International War Crimes on the struggle for the restoration of disputed 2020 election results.

While the world is well aware of Myanmar Junta army’s atrocities in this country with 75 year old active civil war, the terror killings of civilians committed by the numerous opposition rebel forces are un-reported or under-reported since the popular mainstream media outlets in Myanmar language are dominated by the opposition partisan politics and foreign language media also is sourced from those primary reports.

There is no reporter from any international news outlet who are stationed and have access to the killing-fields in Myanmar other than occasional crossings from the neighboring countries since 2021 coup. The IIMM which stands for Independent International Mechanism on Myanmar which is set up by the UN Human Rights Council since 2018 for gathering implicating evidence about Rohingya genocide is accused of relying on the primary source of data from the Myanmar partisan politicians and medias who are party to the post- 2021 conflict.

There is no impartial and independent monitoring body, Internationally or Internally, about the ongoing atrocities in the new phase of Myanmar civil war after the coup.

About The Author

Maung Ba

See author's posts